Open Live Writer: Fix Blogger Login Errors

Fix All Blogger errors inside Open Live WriterCongratulations! You can now successfully connect Open Live Writer to Google Blogger.

Windows Live Writer's clone, the Open Live Writer (OLW), was officially updated yesterday with Google's OAuth 2 modern authentication system. The Blogger accounts login errors or credential connection issues have been fixed and solved. Some bugs still exist when it comes to multiple blog posting, post formatting and assigning labels to your posts. We have figured some tweaks to troubleshoot all these minor errors to make sure you connect your BlogSpot blog with Open Live Writer correctly without facing any future troubles.

This is our first blogger post published with Open Live Writer! =)

Note: Click the Button below to see full list of topics under discussion.

OLW Topics List

1. Fix Login Connection Errors

The Volunteers at Microsoft has released a new version of OLW that has fixed the connection issue. OLW now works fine with Google Blogger v3. I have included below the direct link to the team's frequently updated setup copy called "Nightly" which contains several unrelased features that you can try out. Download the latest version from the link below:

During the installation you will now see a separate option entitled as "Google Blogger"

Blogger Option in Open Live Writer

 Note: I will publish a detailed post on how to setup Blogger with OLW correctly in next 24 hours.

2. Fix Remote Server Errors

OLW will publish your first post without errors but sooner as you try to publish a second post or Close OLW and the reopen it to publish a new post, you will encounter the following error during publishing:

The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden.


The remote server error is caused because OLW is not able to remember your blog account's password. To fix this issue follow these steps:

1 Go To File > Options > Accounts

Open Live Writer Options

2 Select your preferred 'Blog' and then click Edit

Select your Blog

3 You will observe that the Password field is empty or set to null. You

Empty Password Field

4 Click the button "Update account information"

5 Enter your Gmail password inside the password box and also check "Remember my password".

add password again

6 Hit "Next" and your blog theme will be updated!

Thus this stops the server errors from promoting again and OLW will remember each time what your blog password is.

Note: If you encounter this error again then it means you had not chosen the option "Remember my password". Repeat the process again to sort it properly.

3. Fix Label Issue

Note: The Label option is only available in the Nightly download copy that we shared above. It is not present in the official release copy. Therefore you may download OLW using the link we provided above.

Windows Live Writer has a tagger tool, on clicking which all your blog labels are displayed inside a drop down menu. You can then select a Label easily to set your post categories.

blog category list

WLW also helps you easily add new categories or labels in blogger.

add a category

 

But in Open Live Writer you need to manually add or set the Labels for your blogspot post. There exists no automatic way to display full category list for blogger although it exists for Wordpress and other platforms. However there is an easy old traditional work around to apply labels to your post inside OLW.

OLW displays this old-school "Category Box" above your blog post.

category field

(a) Set category in OLW for your blogger blog

Blogger labels are case sensitive, any mistake in uppercase and lowercase letters could lead to error but OLW has handled this problem quite smartly. You don't need to bother about letter casing while assigning labels to your posts in OLW.

For example if your blogger label is "Affiliate Marketing" , you can easily set this label to your post inside OLW by writing "affiliate marketing" or even "affiLiatE MARKETING" , no matter what you write as long as the spelling is correct, OLW will assign the label correctly.

To set multiple labels to a blog post, comma separate labels inside the "Category box" . As shown below:

adding labels

(b) Add New Labels To Your Blog using OLW

You can also create new labels inside Open Live Writer to assign to your blog posts.

Simply write down your new Label inside the "Category Box" and publish your post to Blogger! That's it.

creating new label

Bingo! New Label created and added successfully to your blog post!

4. Fix Formatting Errors

Just Like WLW, Open Live Writer also makes unnecessary editing changes by replacing hyphens with dash, double quotes with smart quotes, test smileys with graphical emoticons and so on. This creates a serious formatting error in your code if you share scripts or HTML inside your blog posts as tutorials. To fix these errors do this.

1. Go To File > Options > Editing.

2. You may uncheck all these boxes. Especially the first two.

Uncheck all editing options

3. Done!

Need Help?

This was a quick post to help you troubleshoot some of the most common errors blogger users are encountering currently. I hope this post proves helpful for most of you. Let me know if you need any help with regard to any part of the tutorial above. What other errors could you report? Are you facing any error that we have not discussed above. Kindly let us know so that we may include it in the list above. Start posting happily now during these holidays with your new Blogging friend i.e. Open Live Writer. =)

If you don't want to get yourself into Serious Technical Trouble while editing your Blog Template then just sit back and relax and let us do the Job for you at a fairly reasonable cost. Submit your order details by Clicking Here »

48 comments

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We have Zero Tolerance to Spam. Chessy Comments and Comments with 'Links' will be deleted immediately upon our review.
  1. Thanks for all you do! I have the latest built and I do not have a category box. Any suggestions for me?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barbara You must be able to see an empty box right at the top of your Post just next to Set post date box. This empty box is where you will add Labels.

      We just custom named it as [Category Box] for highlighting purpose.

      Delete
    2. No, there is no empty box--only the Set post date box. I just double checked and I do have version 0.5.1.2

      Delete
    3. There is no empty box. Only the Set post date box.

      Delete
    4. I guess you have downloaded the "Release" copy and not the Nightly copy of OLW.

      According to Scott they have two builds of Open Live Writer, the NIGHTLY (literally they build this many times a day) and the RELEASE. They use the nightly for testing, but it means that Open Live Writer will be downloading 5 megs every day, a few times a day and updating itself with features they are testing.

      Then there's release. That will update a few times a year. Maybe once a month.

      So if you are a tech savvy person like me and want to get the most updated copy each time just like I did and had the benefit of getting an extra feature of "Category", you can surely uninstall your Release copy and replace it with a Nightly one. =)

      I have shared both the links with you. Do update me once you install the nightly copy.

      Delete
    5. Confirmed: The Category options and Static Pages editing option is only available in the nightly version. So do update your copy for many unseen features =)

      Delete
    6. Yes, I've uninstalled and installed the nightly version and the box is there. Thank you so much!!

      Delete
    7. I am really glad it worked for you barbara! Congratz! =)

      Delete
  2. I am still getting Forbidden 403 errors. I have edited my account config and checked the box to save. I have now pinned OLW to my taskbar. Perhaps I need to uninstall and then install again? I have four blogs. Is it a multi blog issue?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You must first install the latest version of OLW. We have shared its link in the post above.

      Yes you will have to submit the password for each of your blogs separately.Repeat the process for each of your blog.

      Delete
    2. I already tried installing the latest version posted above and remembering the password. But I'm now getting invalid username and password error. I just logged in to my Blogger account and the username and password works fine.

      Help!

      Delete
    3. you may consider re-installing it. Though it must not prompt any such error

      Delete
  3. I was delighted to see this article in my email this morning. I had given up and removed WLW and OLW from my system, resigned to dealing with Blogger's site software, now I feel like Christmas came early! Thanks for the great article!Already got a couple of posts up with OLW.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am sure William now your Christmas holidays will be even more fun! =)

      You must never resign from Blogger! It's literally the best! I have used both WordPress and blogger for over 7 years and still prefer Blogger when it comes to Blogging =D

      You are always welcomed, do let me know if you encountered any errors. I would love to help.

      Delete
  4. My blog dashboard not opening - Not yet downloaded New OLW - Is it the reason?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your problem is not related OLW. It must be some browser issue. Do update your browser to check if you are able to access blogger.com

      Delete
  5. After a long time saved internet usage using open live writer.And i have used wordpress. It is perfectly working .Now i am checking posts offline in relax state.I came to know openlive writer, only when i read MBT. Thankyou for sharing about open live writer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are most welcomed buddy and I am so glad you found the tutorial useful. I have planned up some posts for wordpress also that we will be sharing shortly. OLW is surely a time saving tool! =)

      Delete
  6. On step 3B, adding labels, where do I find that feature. My screen doesn't look lilke yours. In that spot there is a "set post date" feature. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice one! Thank you, I fixed my 403 error.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If in case It occur again then it is when you shutdown OLW. I recommend keeping it minimized in toolbar tray. This helps it function even more better.

      Delete
  8. After having problems publishing with the WLW I had been using I had to download the open version but it did't show the categories toolbar. Reading your post I downloaded the nightly version and you've solved my problem. The only thing is that I have to write them every time because there's not the ticking option as there was before but that is now a minor problem. Thank you SO much for your tricks! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is surely true Marta. Right now you need to manually insert labels inside the category box. I am sure the new official release would make this procedure even more simple.

      You can keep all your labels inside a spreadsheet to make sure you dont make any spelling mistakes and you could easily see through the list of available labels applied on your blog.

      Delete
  9. I downloaded the nightly version, but still no label box. plus, it will not let me edit the account with name and password.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I tried several times and nothing. Yesterday I couldn't even delete the downloaded program, it was running in the background (3 of them) and couldn't shut them down (set up files). I restarted my computer and everything was back to normal, except now when I download the file it will not run. It says running in the task manager, but nothing. I had like 6 or 7 of them running. I couldn't get anything to work. Giving up at the moment, as I restarted again.
      I read everything yesterday and today again, just to make sure. It's just not working for me.

      Delete
  10. I just noticed that OLW is not able to pull in existing labels as WLW. Is that featured proprietary too?

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is cool, but I can't get my Wordpress blog to connect. Do I have to have the premium account for it to work? Everytime I put in what I think is the correct address I get an error message. Boo.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have uninstalled the previous OLW and installed Nightly, restarted the computer but still no Categories. Please help me what to do.

    ReplyDelete
  13. If I want to update account information it gives me wrong user or password. I am confused. In user name appear some letters and letters, I delete them I put my mail and my password, I check remember... but still same message. Please help me to fix this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right. The errors have increased last week and I have informed scott about these new bugs. In a tweet response he said he will fix them soon. Just waiting myself for thee new update. I will keep you all updated.

      Delete
  14. I installed the new Nightly version of OLW. When I tried to publish a blog post to my Google Blogger account, I get a "GoogleApiException" error. It says "The service blogger has thrown an exception: Google.GoogleApiException: Google.Apis.Requests.RequestError
    Not Found [404]
    Errors [
    Message[Not Found] Location[ - ] Reason[notFound] Domain[global]
    ]

    at Google.Apis.Requests.ClientServiceRequest`1.Execute()
    at OpenLiveWriter.BlogClient.Clients.GoogleBloggerv3Client.EditPost(String blogId, BlogPost post, INewCategoryContext newCategoryContext, Boolean publish, String& etag, XmlDocument& remotePost)
    at OpenLiveWriter.BlogClient.Blog.EditPost(BlogPost post, INewCategoryContext newCategoryContext, Boolean publish)
    at OpenLiveWriter.PostEditor.UpdateWeblogAsyncOperation.DoWork()
    at OpenLiveWriter.CoreServices.AsyncOperation.InternalStart()"

    How can I fix this?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you so much for helping us all with these issues. I am having the same issues as Michelle and am getting the error messages despite following your steps here by saving the password. Is there any fix for this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never got a reply to my question, but this week I uninstalled the version of OLW that I had and reinstalled it. Now it is working. So I don't know what was changed, but at least I am able to publish posts now.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for this Michelle. Going to give this a try now and get back!

      Delete
  16. @Michelle and @Meeta

    Humble apologies for the delayed response. Was stuck with office work. I tweeted scott about these bugs and he responded that they are working to fix them all and it would take some time till we manage to debug the platform completely.
    At present OLW has been perfectly configured and I am no more receiving any errors as well. Though the above tips could help in using the most updated version of OLW before the official release. I am sure they will add the labels support too in official release but you can still use it using Nightly.

    I just hope no errors may troubleshoot any of us again. Fingers crossed! =)

    ReplyDelete
  17. OLW now has the categories drop down box, so you no longer have to manually enter them. Just noticed it this evening. Which leads to the question, does OLW automatically update? It appears so.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I am doing great with Open Live Writer, with the exception that spell check does not work, and I get no response when I click on the "ABC spelling" icon in the menu bar. Can someone help?

    ReplyDelete
  19. while opening the OLW I am not able to type the body message. I am able type / edit Heading. Then the rest it show theme background only. Kindly help me how to fix it.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, thank you for writing this wonderful help. I started using OLW for my blogger account and that wouldn't have been possible without fixing 'Remember Me' in the app. Going to explore OLW more and more from today. Thank you again Blogger Tricks dot com

    ReplyDelete
  21. I am getting Error while publishing on blogger in OLW

    plz check the below error

    "The Service blogger has thrown and exception
    Google.GoogleapiException
    Google.Apis.Requst.RequestE
    we are sorry but the value for riend was not valid. (400)"

    ReplyDelete
  22. I've been trying for 8 hours now to post a blog with the latest version of OWL and all I get is a 404 error. I've looked all over on line and cannot find anything that I can do about this. Everything was working fine yesterday. Can you help me? This is the message I get immediately after clicking Publish,
    The service blogger has thrown an exception: Google.GoogleApiException: Google.Apis.Requests.RequestError
    Not Found [404]
    Errors [
    Message[Not Found] Location[ - ] Reason[notFound] Domain[global]
    ]

    at Google.Apis.Requests.ClientServiceRequest`1.Execute()
    at OpenLiveWriter.BlogClient.Clients.GoogleBloggerv3Client.EditPost(String blogId, BlogPost post, INewCategoryContex

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anybody have any suggestion for a 404 error that I get when posting directly from Live Writer or to Draft in google? Can't post anything anywhere although everything was working fine yesterday and I did nothing but turn the machine off at night and then back on in the morning. Using Live Writer version 0.6 and windows 7. Here's the error I've been getting all day long between my unsuccessful efforts to research a solution on line. I'm pulling my hair out. I can't find info on this anywhere.

    The service blogger has thrown an exception: Google.GoogleApiException: Google.Apis.Requests.RequestError
    Not Found [404]
    Errors [
    Message[Not Found] Location[ - ] Reason[notFound] Domain[global]
    ]

    at Google.Apis.Requests.ClientServiceRequest`1.Execute()
    at OpenLiveWriter.BlogClient.Clients.GoogleBloggerv3Client.EditPost(String blogId, BlogPost post, INewCategoryContext newCategoryContext, Boolean publish, String& etag, XmlDocument& remotePost)
    at OpenLiveWriter.BlogClient.Blog.EditPost(BlogPost post, INewCategoryContext newCategoryContext, Boolean publish)
    at OpenLiveWriter.PostEditor.UpdateWeblogAsyncOperation.DoWork()
    at OpenLiveWriter.CoreServices.AsyncOperation.InternalStart()




    Write

    ReplyDelete